Not all for Aldi — UPDATED

The new Aldi store planned in Katy won’t be getting a warm welcome from some of its neighbors.

A group of residents from the Oak Park Trails subdivision don’t want the discount grocery chain, saying it will lower property values and increase traffic. They don’t think it fits in with the existing retail in the area. They also worry about safety.

“The attraction of shoppers from neighborhoods in need of bare bone prices along with other factors will endanger current residents,” according to a press release notifying the media of a “Stop Aldi Now” rally at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The store is planned for the corner of Mason Road and Oak Park Trails.

Residents say Aldi has been unresponsive to their concerns and questions. They’ve set up an online petition.

Here’s a video the group shot of an earlier rally:

UPDATE: Aldi responded with this statement.

We continue to have an open dialogue and work directly with the Oak Park Trails homeowners association, and have done so throughout the planning and development of the Katy location, to ensure local building requirements are met. We appreciate the association’s input and have addressed their concerns with the building plans by decreasing the exterior lighting around the store, installing a left-hand turn lane to keep traffic flowing, and adding additional green space between the parking lot and the south property line. Additionally, ALDI agreed to customize the building design features to better fit the community and raise the building height to minimize visibility of A/C units. It has always been our goal to be a good community partner and neighbor, and we look forward to officially joining the Katy community.

8 Responses

Reminds me of when the fight against the Heights WalMart was going on and everyone out in the burbs accused concerned Heights residents that love their neighborhood and its locally-owned small businesses as being pretentious racists.

This is laughable. Their concerns about “traffic,” “safety,” and “trash,” would magically disappear if this was a Whole Foods, HEB, or Trader Joe’s. They’d have more credibility if they were just honest and said “We don’t want poor people in our neighborhood.”

Get over close minded, bigoted/racist/pretentious suburban elitist selves !!!! Your neighborhood IS NOT the Memorial Villages/Tanglewood/WestU/Southampton/Bellaire/River Oaks !!! Your in fricking Katy people. Deal with it. You ,oh my Gawd Becky,may have to actually deal with and set your lily white eyes upon non-white people. Time to join the 21st Century,you insecure jerk wads!!!!!

They are a bunch of whiners! They already have an apartment complex, storage buildings and car repair place backing up to their neighborhood. Apparently they thought this 2.5 acre plot on the very busy Mason Rd would just stay empty forever. If you buy a house that backs up to a major thoroughfare, you need to expect it to eventually have a business behind it. Aldi is better than a bar, strip club, daycare, and a bunch of other things.

Get over it already OPT subdivision. Aldi will be a great addition to the neighborhood. I hope they do not have children protesting like last time, no need to put a child in danger on Mason Road. Wonder what will go on Winding Trail and Mason Road? The Subdivision has ZERO control of the site, Aldi was being a good neighbor meeting with the subdivision.